Paris

I am writing from one the smallest country in the world, which name is Georgia. It is located at the crossroads of western Asia and eastern Europe, so we are half Asian and half European people. Our country does not have a free visa regime, so people who live in Georgia and love travelling is very difficult to see their dreams countries. I was very lucky, I won an exchange program in Poland and from there I went to see my dream city: Paris. So I began my journey to Paris. My friend and I bought the tickets and went to the airport. In Paris we found a host, family which we found in "couchsurfing". They gave us the address and to get there, we needed to get the subway. We got subway map and we were shocked! We have never seen so many lines before!

Paris Tbilisi

Eventually we found the address and we met Martin, he was our lovely and sweet host. Martin gave us the sightseeing map, so we started exploring Paris!

The first was the Louvre museum, the largest art museum in the world and home for one of the finest art collections. We saw the greatest artist Leonardo da Vinci's most famous painting: Mona Lisa.

The second place we saw was Notre Dame it is such a huge and very beautiful cathedral! For me it was the symbol of love, when I saw it remembered me the story of Esmeralda and Quasimodo.

The third place we saw was Arc De Triomphe, it is the biggest and tallest triumphal arc in the world. It was built in 1806.

The fourth place we visited was the Eiffel Tower one of the must see places in Paris, it was built by the French engineer Gustave Eiffel.

Moreover we visited the Sacré Coeur Basilica, Luxemburg Gardens, Moulin Rouge and so on, but if I start talking about their history, it will get boring. I am studying business and I think I'm not very good at writing essay, it is better if I show you the photos instead.

I heard stories about Paris, the city of love and if you don't feel this vibe it in Paris, I am sure you will find it somewhere, but keep looking...

Finally I want to say it was such wonderful, crazy, tour with my friend, we walked a lot and we had such a good time. I hope i will see Paris one more time.

Bye.

I was an Erasmus student in Paris back at 2014. I am originally from Bangladesh (most of you probably didn't hear of my country). Anyway, the time as an Erasmus was a hell of a ride for me. I will never forget it. I went to a lot of places but the most memorable was Disneyland at Paris. It was so cool & awesome. It was like my inner child rose up and adult me was gone at that time.

I enjoyed every bit of it. And well, I don't know if we are able to talk about more than one place or not but I would like to say the beauty of Eiffel Tower & the actual Monalisa of Louvre museum in Paris was mind blowing. I am attaching pic here anyway.

One day in Paris was a part of my last week of travelling in May. Firstly I went to Barcelona, after I had one day alone in Paris and after we continued to the south of France. In this blog story I will tell you how I said goodbye to Paris.

Why did I even decide to spend one day alone in Paris? It is easy. At the earliest we booked the trip to Bordeaux from Paris for Saturday midnight. I knew that I had three free days before this trip so I bought the tickets to Barcelona from Paris. That´s why it was just easier to stay in Paris instead of travelling back to Lille because the plane goes only from Barcelona to Paris (not to Lille). It was also convenient because after 17 of May I did not have to pay for the accommodation and as I already said Paris is always a good idea, even alone.

The day started horrible. I had to take the flight from Barcelona at 6 am which meant getting up at 4 am after 2 hours of sleeping. On my way to the airport I already knew it would be hard. In the end I survived just with one coffee. I took a blablacar from Paris Beauvais airport to the city centre. During this semester I got to like travelling by blabla car. Sometimes you can really save a lot of money and additionally you can meet interesting people in the car. The driver was a guy from France so I practised French little bit. Other travellers were from Italy. Actually it was a couple and they were really friendly. We talked whole time in the car and we also changed our numbers as I would like to travel to Italy to the Lago de Garda soon.

The driver dropped me off at the Arc de Triomphe. Last time when we climbed up I really liked it. So let´s do it again! It was my last day in Paris and it was perfect opportunity to do it again. This day the weather was awesome. It was not raining (surprisingly) and there was even sunshine. Firstly I decided to find the nearest McDonalds and make a plan about my lonely day and charge my phone. While having a coffee I made a list of things I wanted to do. I had asked Juliette before about any recommendations and I found out that there were still places I had not visited in Paris such as the museum Orangerie, the Centre Pompidou, some parks plus I wanted to see again the Eiffel Tower for sure and the Arc and the Pont Neuf. It seemed like busy day but it was still morning and I had time until midnight. The bus to Bordeaux went at 12. 15 am. Actually, I was quite happy to enjoy this day alone after busy Barcelona and before the trip to the south of France.

List from Juliette (if you wanna travel to Paris):

Classics:

• Tour Eiffel
• Notre-Dame de Paris
• Sacré Coeur
• Arc de Triomphe
• Champs Elysées

Gardens:

• Jardin des Tuileries
• Jardin du Luxembourg
• Parc Monceau

Outdoors:

• Le Marais
• Quais de Seine
• Cimetière du Père LaChaise
• Concorde
• Trocadéro

Museums:

• Musée d'Orsay
• Musée du Quai Branly
• Musée Marmottan
• Centre Georges Pompidou
• Musée Rodin

Monuments/Indoors:

• Panthéon
• La Conciergerie
• Les Catacombes
• Opéra Garnier
• Eglise de la Madeleine

Firstly, I went to check the Arc de Triomphe. There were so many people that I just postponed visiting and I decided to leave my luggage at the Gare du Nord because it was quite heavy (I had clothes and all other things for six days inside).

The advantage was that it was Saturday so I bought the special daily ticket for 3. 85 euro and I used it a lot. When I got to the Gare it was awful. It took me about 30 minutes to find the place where I can let my luggage. The station is quite big and I had to ask twice. When I accomplished the task it was already about noon and my first stop was the Centre Pompidou.

I decided to walk to enjoy Paris as much as I could. Centre Pompidou is a modern museum. The entrance is free for European citizen under 25 years. I received my ticket and I went there. I have to admit that I am not such a big fan of museums but this one was nice. Some paintings was not special at all and some of them were interesting.

There is also a pretty nice view to whole Paris. Actually it took me 2 hours to explore it whole. Everything in Paris took me much more time than I expected because it is really huge. I cannot imagine living there at all. I would be probably late for every meeting.

The next stop was the Pont du Neufand the whole part of the city next to the river. I really enjoyed walking there. I had a lot of time to perceive all the details. I found out that the more I visit Paris the more I like it. In addition with sun everything looked nice.

About 3 pm I had something to eat and I went to the Conciergerie- the other thing from the list of Juliette. I really read all the information on the walls (sometimes in French). I continued to the park Tuileries and there were millions of people because of the nice weather.

I don´t really know how it happened but suddenly it was 5 pm. That day I was also supposed to meet our friend from Italy – Mattia. He still had an internship in Paris so we decided to have Italian pasta together (as last time). We agreed on meeting around 7 or 8 pm. When I saw what the time was I found out that I was not able to finish even half of the things I wanted to see. No museum Orangerie. No Arc de Triomphe. I did not even have time for the Eiffel Tower but it would not be proper time in Paris without seeing it so I went there for a while. It is the best place in Paris for me.

I could just spend hours watching the tower and think about everything. I was sitting there but I got annoyed by guys asking about buying the water, the bottle of wine, selfie stick or small Eiffel Tower so I went to pick up my backpack. I found it successfully and it was already time to visit Mattia.

It was really nice to see him again and we found out that if I go with my friends to the Lago de Garda in summer we can meet as well since he lives really close. I really loved his Carbonara and I am going to cook it as I am at home. After he went to meet some friends and I went to the station Bercy to start my new and last adventure in the south of France. I had quite time so I decided to get off the metro and find some shop. I roamed the streets but it was already dark and the streets fell silent. I did not realize before how scary Paris can be. Whole day I felt so pleasant in this beautiful city. Later, everything changed. It started to rain. I was a little bit lost in unknown streets and strange people were everywhere. At that moment I realized that it is really not a city for me for living. A lot of different nationalities live there and some parts of Paris does not make me feel comfortable there after 7 pm.

Never mind, I took a metro again, I went to Bercy where I found Bruno and Joshue waiting for me and we headed to Bordeaux.

We were talking a long time about going to Bordeaux because they say that the city is amazing. We start planning it already in March because if you buy the bus tickets in advance the price is significantly lower. I was so happy when Andreas was interested in going and we were just looking for other people who could go with us. Unfortunately, the weekend we wanted to go, nobody could. I tried hard but everybody already had some plans. We were still waiting and in the end we had to postpone the trip. Andreas just suggested: "Well, let´s go to Paris instead". At the earliest, I was not convinced to go because he told me he was going with Annie and Frida who I did not know well at that time. Later, it seemed to me a great idea because I did not get enough of Paris and I had the opportunity to spend more time with these people. I already bought the ticket and plan everything. We also had the good idea of meeting Mattia in Paris because he had moved there because of his internship.

Everything went well until Andreas decided to mess with me. Once, he just sent me the message: "hey, I dont think I am going". I was shocked! He was the one who suggested going to Paris, he was the one who convinced me and now, he just changed his mind? I got mad of course. Without him, I would not probably think of going there with these people. We kind of argued about it and then Frida told me she would talk to him. I believed that she could convince him so I did not think about it anymore. What a great surprise that Andreas wrote me the following day that he really changed his mind and he was going! I dont know what happened but I was happy and we could go! Moreover, one of my best friends Mara decided to visit me this weekend! I decided to introduce him to my friends in Paris and then go to Lille.

We all started our trip on Friday. We took a bus directly from Lille to Paris after school. Andreas did not resist making fun of me and he was calling me that he missed the bus because he knew I would freak out. Later, I found out he was already waiting at the bus station. We were five people – Annie, Frida, Lilian, Andreas and me. In the beginning, I realized that I was not so close to these people but it changed fast after this weekend. It was the first time when I spoke to Andreas about some serious stuff – we were talking about family and I had a good time. Normally, the bus goes to Paris in three hours. I was travelling only with my backpack but Frida had to take her suitcase since she decided to travel to another place after Paris. After long consideration we decided to crash at Mattia´s place. Some people wanted to rent a room from Airbnb but the majority decided not to pay for accommodation and stay with Mattia.

Mattia was our friend from Italy who studied with us in Lille but he had to leave us in the middle of the semester. It was weird for me because I was not allowed to finish my studies in the middle of semester. For him, it worked differently. When we contacted him, he seemed happy to see us because he was just working in Paris – some internship. I don’t remember what exactly we did on Friday because it all happened a few months ago. I remember we went to the Galeries Lafayette and I liked it a lot because you can climb up to the building for free and there are many benches upstairs. For instance, if you go to to the Montparnasse you have to pay 12 euros for the view which is through the window but here it is real. We took some pictures there but the weather was shitty because we had to take our umbrella.

After this, we were all hungry and we did not have any better idea than going to McDonald's. It was kind of funny that Annie did not want to spend money on food because she wanted to save but when we went to the Galeries Lafayette she spent a fortune on some necklace with no hesitation. We were surprised but it was her business. We got quite tired because of our bags and we went to Mattia´s place to plan our evening. It was already around 6 pm. He did not live in the city centre so we took the metro. We did some shopping and we were more than happy when Mattia´s suggested cooking an authentic Italian Carbonara pasta for us! I finally learnt how to cook it and it is simple. Firstly, you need to boil spaghetti. In the meantime, you can fry the meat with onions. In a separate bowl, you have to mix eggs and parmesan. For me, the most surprising thing was that when it is all done, you just need to mix spaghetti with meat and put raw eggs inside. There is no sour cream and you just eat it. It can sound little bit weird to eat raw eggs but I hope it is okay because I already saw it in the restaurant. When we ate it, everybody was happy. The food was delicious. I would say that it was the best Carbonara I had ever had.

Later on, we started to drink some beers and we were playing the game: Never have I ever. I don’t like the game much but it was awesome this time. I remember exactly that I had such a great time. I felt natural with these people and I would say that we got to know a lot of new things about ourselves. Except for this game, we were talking about our biggest failures or mistakes and in fact, I did not really know what to say. Sometimes it is difficult to talk about such things in front of more than one person. Since the beginning we were planning to go to the Eiffel Tower at night to drink there and enjoy that luxury. We wanted to go, but you have no idea what happened.

Lilian could not find her shoe! It sounds more than crazy but it was true! In the beginning, we were just laughing but after 30 minutes we got angry. We really wanted to go and we already spent one hour of looking for a shoe and it was not anywhere. Andreas was taking a video of Lilian. The first ten minutes she was just like: “okay, guys. Can you tell me where is my shoe? I know you hid it“. After a few minutes, I realized that I had no idea where the shoe was and I did not even know if someone took it or not. We kept searching and searching and we found nothing. Then, Andreas made fun of Lilian and he said he hid it in another room. We all went there but it was not there. We were hopeless. We spent more than one hour of looking for a shoe and we did not find it. On the video, Lilian was not kind anymore. She was saying: “Fucking shoe. I don’t know where it is. I need it! ”. She already suggested that we could go without her. It was not close at all and we did not want to let Lilian alone. We kept looking for a shoe and then Andreas decided to borrow his shoe to Lilian. It was kind of funny seeing her small legs in his big shoe.

When we got to the place with the Eiffel Tower we were more than amazed. Of course we all had been there before but I enjoyed it even more because I already knew what to expect. At night, the tower is stunning! It is a blast to see it. It changes colours. We took a bottle of wine with us and we were just lying on the ground watching that beauty. We were listening the music and it started to rain a little bit. I loved it! Later, Frida wanted to go to some party so bad. She was talking about it. In the meantime, Mattia started to be drunk and he started to behave funny. After midnight we were all exhausted and we decided to go home. We took a taxi because Mattia was not even able to tell us if there is any way to get home by bus at night in Paris. In the taxi, it was a big mess because Frida told the driver the address of the party and we were driving opposite way until we noticed. Then we changed the direction and we went to Mattia´s place to sleep. Mattia was super drunk and he was hugging and kissing everybody in the car – mostly Frida. When we got home, I turned my internet on and I found unpleasant news in my mail. My coordinator wrote me he did not like a big part of my thesis that I sent him and he wanted me to correct it. It was all a big misunderstanding because I did not really know what he expected from the theoretical part and when I sent it to him he wanted to change it totally. I was not happy because I already spent a lot of time writing it and it was a few weeks before the deadline so I knew when I got back from Paris I needed to work on it. Nevertheless, at the moment it does not scare me because I already handed in my thesis and everything went well.

When we woke up, Mattia was hangover and he refused to explore the city with us. It took us quite a lot of time to take a shower and start going. I forgot to mention that the apartment of Mattia was amazing! He was allowed to use this place during his internship and it looked awesome. Firstly, it was huge and secondly everything was nice with a big window in the living room. In the morning we were supposed to meet Mara. We were late but I was so excited to see him and introduce him to everybody. We changed the meeting point a few times and we were waiting for Mara. In the meantime, we took a lot of pictures! When I say a lot of pictures I mean tons! We spent there a lot of time and this place is perfect for the pictures. Andreas also wanted to have one picture with each girl. Thanks to it I have so many nice memories in my computer that I can watch. When Mara came I introduced him to everybody and we directly went to the pancake place and we had some. It was expensive near to the Eiffel Tower but they made them so thin and we could have the salty or sweet version. It was delicious.

Unfortunately, Andreas had to leave us because of some school stuff and we continued to the Pont Neuf. It was my first time seeing this bridge. When I went to Paris for the first time, I just heard about it and I wanted to see it personally. It is the bridge for lovers with a bunch of lockers. I was impressed. It was so nice. I already saw few spots with lockers, but this one was magic. Later, Frida went to the museum and we decided to meet Mattia at Notre Dame. I did not know about it but my friends told me that near Notre Dame there is a special area to have a cheap good lunch. We walked there and I was surprised by the huge selection and prices. We were walking through tiny streets and there was one restaurant next to another one. They were offering a whole lunch menu for reasonable prices. We could have a starter, drink, dish and dessert. We chose one and we ordered. Mara took an advantage of being in France and he tried mussels. I could not even stand the smell of the food! I was so happy I did not have to eat it. The food was nice – not the best food ever but I liked it and we paid around 12 euros for everything which surprised me because in Lille we normally paid 12 euros only for one meal.

It was already evening and we had to catch our bus. We wanted to take Marek to some clubs in Lille and show him our party but exceptionally nobody was in Lille and people who were there were not in for the party – unfortunately. When we got home, we just went to sleep. I showed Mara the place where I was living and he said it was not bad as I described it. Although he was not able to properly stand in my room because of the decreased ceiling. We were talking a lot about AIESEC because Lilian told me about it in the restaurant. I was almost decided to go somewhere with them because they have quite a good deal. You can go with them to almost every country in the world and do voluntary job for six week. In exchange, you don’t have to pay for the accommodation and food in short. You just need to buy your ticket. I was considering long time to go with them during the summer but since I was accepted to Amsterdam and I came from France in June, I knew it would be better to stay home, in the Czech Republic and enjoy my family and friends. Anyways, it helped Marek and he went to Indonesia with AIESEC.

On Sunday, I decided to organize a party in my house because clubs were normally closed Sundays and Mondays. I did not expect so many people to come! It was amazing! Our kitchen was full and we were having raclette dinner. I have to say that I did not even recognize that Marek just met my friends because he was talking to them as he knew them for ages. Everybody was open, happy and nice. We were around 14 people. I enjoyed that evening much! I love when I can invite people who I like the most and then I can spend time with them. Marek was helping me a lot with preparation and food! In the middle of melting the cheese, the machine unfortunately stopped working but we did not mind and we used another one. I found that party more than successful. I had to go to school next day and I let Marek sleeping in my room. When I was back, we were walking in Lille, we went also to the office to solve some problems with CAF. It was hard to say goodbye after a few days, but we were planning to see each other soon.

I always wanted to visit Paris. They say it is the most romantic city in Europe. During my French classes at high school I heard a lot of information about this city. Our teacher was crazy about France and she knew everything about cities, people and habits in France. Unfortunately, I was not interested in France when I was at high school. I don’t remember what she said. In addition, I did not even think of going to France. The only reason why I took French was that we were obliged to study two languages and French seemed to me better than German. Once, we had one possibility to do a short exchange to France. It was only for one week. You could visit France and spend some time in a family and then someone from France came to the Czech Republic to live in your family in return. My parents did not like that, so I did not go. Moreover, it was only for 7 days at maximum. On the contrary, I was excited about Paris. It looked amazing on the pictures. I knew many friends who went there just for a weekend but it was not a cheap trip. I was waiting for a good opportunity to go there, which came sooner than I expected.

When I tried to choose the country for my Erasmus, France was one of the best candidates. It was beneficial for me to go there because I could improve not only my English, but also my French. When I saw Paris on the list I wanted to go there. The idea of living in the capital city seemed attractive to me. Luckily, I spoke to people who went for an Erasmus to live in the capital city and since they spent much more money than other people, it discouraged me. It is the same situation as in the Czech Republic. Transportation, restaurants, acommodation – everything is always way more expensive in the capital city than normally. My final decision was related to people who experienced their exchange in France. Since two of my friends told me that they had an amazing time in Lille, I made a choice. I knew nothing about French cities actually. I had to rely on opinions of others. Normally, I prefer being in a big city. Although it is impossible to compare Paris and Prague because Paris is bigger than Prague. In the end I chose a small city (in fact, it is not so small in comparison to Czech cities).

Lille is situated in the north of France. When I checked the exact location I found out that it is only 30 minutes by train from Paris. Afterwards, someone told me about a cheap bus company called Megabus. I was shocked when I found out that they offered often tickets from Paris to Lille only for 1 euro – actually every day! It is cheaper than everything. Of course, it had some disadvantage. The journey lasts 3 hours by bus instead of 30 minutes by train. I did not really mind. My first thought was: "That´s perfect! If I have a free weekend I will just go to Paris to hang out there". It was a good deal even for one day trip.

Now, when I am back I have to say I made a good choice. Lille is perfect for students. It is quite small but you can find everything there. There are many parks, museums, bars, restaurants, university and moreover, it is close to every country – Belgium, England, Germany, Netherlands, etc. A lot of people were telling me that if I want to travel I should go there. At that time, I thought I was not going to travel at all because it would be super expensive. Nevertheless, I always found a way how to travel cheaply. In the end I travelled through the whole Europe. I would say that Paris is a beautiful city. However, it is more for visiting than living there. Transportation is crazily expensive. The distance from one place to another one can be really long. In addition, going out and getting home from a party can be even impossible at night. On the contrary, you can easily get everywhere in Lille by foot or by bike. You can go to a restaurant or bar without spending 40 euros per night and in extreme cases, if you are bored (it never happens because, there is always a lot of things to do in Lille), you can just go to Paris for a weekend (sometimes just for 2 euro! ).

Another reason why I stopped thinking about moving to Paris was safety. There were the terrorist attacks in November. I remember that I was in Maastricht with my friends and when we woke up we just read in the newspaper that there were terrorist attacks. I was keen to know everything about it. I could not believe that. I did not expect it in France at all. Normally, I don’t watch the news. This was different. It was related to the place I wanted to move soon. I was shocked when I found out all the information about the whole situation. I felt terrible. I was quite scared for a month and I was reading all articles related to this topic. Then, I arrived at conclusion that there is no real safe place in Europe. Their biggest advantage is that nobody knows when and where it happens. Therefore, you never know what is going to happen. It does not have to be safe even in Prague. I was just hoping that after this affair France will be one of the safest places in Europe. Moreover, I was moving to a small city in France. I decided to go for an Erasmus anyway.

When I was in France, I was so excited to visit Paris. Unfortunately, it took me almost whole month to go there for the first time. It was quite busy when I arrived. We had a whole week of introduction activities and then I registered for IELTS English certificate exam that was 23 of January - during the weekend. Therefore, I could go to Paris only the weekend after because I wanted to study before the test. It was a nice coincidence because they do these English tests normally only in Paris but this time they exceptionally decided to organize it in Lille, in January. So I did not have to travel to Paris due to studying reasons but only due to travelling plans. My first week in Lille, I met a great French guy, Adrien. We met thanks to the International Club. He is originally from Paris. That´s why we decided to go there together and he could show me all places on his own.

Honesty, we chose the worst weekend ever. It was raining the whole time with no break. We were already used to raining from Lille, although, this rain was so heavy and it was impossible to explore the city. We had only two days there. Of course, I took my umbrella but it did not help much. I think that´s the reason why I started to like Paris later when I went there for the second time because this time everything looked negative and dark. We were wet the whole weekend and I did not have any good pictures. The weather can change everything.

I don’t know many good French movies but when we started to talk about them we immediately came up with the movie called: Tais-toi. I love this comedy. It can seem lame but I am always laughing a lot while watching it. The movie was all made in Paris. It was great to see the places I know from the movie on my own. Moreover, Adrien lives exactly in this area in Paris.

One of our first stops was a restaurant to hide ourselves from rain. Adrien suggested having pancakes. I did not like eating them often but I already heard that French pancakes were different. In the restaurant, they had typical French pancakes so I wanted to try them. Later, I found out that there are called: Les crêpes. They are totally different from normal ones. They offer two kinds of them – salty and sweet ones. They are thin and you can choose from a lot of flavours. Among the sweet ones, there was Nutella, banana, chocolate, raspberry, etc. Among the salty ones there was a pancake with ham, mushrooms, eggs, cheese and so on. We took a salty one each and then we shared the sweet one. It was absolutely delicious. I immediately fell in love with them. Then, we decided to do some sightseeing. Firstly, we went to the famous skyscraper in Paris – Montparnasse. Honestly, I don’t think that the entrance fee was worth it. It was around 12 euros and when we were up, we did not see much because the weather was foggy and it was all glass-fronted. I prefer being up with no barriers like windows. We spent some time there because they had some small games there to entertain people. There was a cafeteria as well.

Next stop was the Eiffel Tower. I don’t even want to say it but my first impression was confusing. Perhaps, I expected too much. We were coming from the park (not Trocadero square) and the place was full of mud. I regretted one couple who was trying to take romantic pictures there. It was still raining. I mean – it was amazing to finally see such a big tower with my own eyes but at the same time I felt a little bit disappointed. I should mention that next time when I went to Paris it was totally opposite way (I started to love the city).

On the other side, the view on the Eiffel Tower from the other side was way better for me. Moreover, I loved the Eiffel Tower at night when there were many lights on it. We did not go upstairs because it is better to book it in advance. Moreover, the nice view of Paris includes the Eiffel Tower and if you go up to the tower you lose this advantage.

We were not using the metro because I did not want to. I always prefer walking in a new city. I don’t remember the exact order but we also managed to go up to the Arc de Triomphe. The entrance was for free – either for students or for people from the European Union. I liked climbing up. There is always quite a big queue by the way. In the beginning I had no idea that there was possibility to climb up. The view was amazing.

We also saw the Luxembourg Gardens. When I moved to Lille I was amazed by its big wheel at the main square. I always like these types of attraction because if you take a ride you have a nice view and experience at the same time. During my first week in Lille we went to the wheel with Adrien. Therefore when we saw the big one in Paris, we decided to take a ride there also. It was again quite expensive – around 12 euros. On the contrary, it was still less expensive than the one in London. I finished my tradition with wheels there and I did not even want to go there for such money. This wheel was awesome! I appreciated walking in Paris a lot and enjoying the atmosphere near the river. We were looking for the Pont Neuf but we did not find it.

Last stop was the Louvre Museum. I am not a big fan of museums but I decided to go to one museum because a lot of people told me that it is an important experience. In Paris, there are a lot of offers for students – almost all museums are for free. When I searched for them I found a lot of museums there! Someone told me that the best one is l´Orangerie and someone said le Louvre. It was difficult to decide but since I knew the pyramid at Louvre from pictures I wanted to go there. We went inside and since it was totally huge, we just decided to find the most famous painting – Mona Lisa. At that time we had no idea it could take us one hour to find her! It was unbelievable huge. Later, we found one restaurant in the city centre and we had lunch. I was surprised that I paid for lasagne 13 euros because I paid for a food around 14 euros in Lille. Maybe it was only a coincidence. Subsequently, we saw the Notre Dame and I liked it. In addition, I know many songs talking about this place.

The weekend went fast and since the weather was terrible we were not out the whole time. I would say that we managed to see many things in two days but it was not everything. Nevertheless, it was first time seeing Paris and I had a lot of time to go there again. I kept Montmartre and Disneyland for next time. I had double sided feelings about Paris. I had an amazing time there with a great guide. We had a lot of fun. On the one side, regarding the city, I expected more from Paris. But I was aware of the fact that my experience was influenced by terrible weather and when I went there next time I totally got to love the city. That´s why I went there again with my friends and alone.